Renaming PDF Attachments in Zotero 8

Zotti0099

Hello everyone,

I’m currently trying to rename all PDF files in my Zotero 8 library on a MacBook using a specific naming convention: “First Author et al._Year”.

I attempted to do this via
Tools → Manage Attachments → Rename File Attachments,
but it doesn’t seem to work as expected. Instead of applying the format, all file names are being set to:
“{auth1etal}_{year}.pdf”.

The metadata (authors, year, etc.) are already complete and correctly filled in, so I’m not sure what’s causing the issue.

Has anyone encountered this problem before or knows how to properly apply this naming pattern? Is there something I might be missing in the configuration?

Thanks a lot in advance!

Best,

hslehmann

Hi

I think I may have had the same perceived issue but have just worked out that maybe its the filename (ie. in Finder folder) that is changed as opposed to the Title which is what we see on the Zotero screen.
Previously I would always do the 'rename from Metadata' but that would changed both (I think).

So now even though the Title of a PDF is often just PDF, when you open it to view then the name as per the template (author, date etc) is apparent.

Happy to be proven wrong - but for now I'm happy that the file itself is renamed.

adamsmith

That's: https://www.zotero.org/support/kb/attachment_title_vs_filename yes

The original issue by @Zotti0099 isn't that, though.
Zotti -- it looks like you may have put {auth1etal}_{year} into the renaming preferences in Zotero somehow and that syntax isn't valid for anything I believe, so it'd cause odd behavior.

Zotti0099

Thank you all for your helpful suggestions.
The hint from adamsmith was especially useful — it turned out that there was indeed a syntax error in my template.
I really appreciate the guidance!